By: Remy Balmain
Participating in club sports at the University of Oregon is a great way to maintain a healthy lifestyle, to network with people of similar interests and to continue to participate in athletics at a competitive level, but what is the cost? Students at the University of Oregon who are interested in participating in club sports are expected to pay large amounts of money, out of pocket, to be able to fund their team. Club sports are more competitive than intramural sports, but are less competitive and less time consuming than participating on a Division 1 team. Students should be able to have access to participating in a club sports program, without disqualifying students from a lower income household.
Club sports at the University of Oregon struggles each year to fund their tournaments and events. According to The Daily Emerald, each year at least one team must petition to gain more funding from the UO Division of Student Life in order to fund their trips to national tournaments. Without this funding, these teams could lose their bid to participate in championships or other elite tournaments. If the team is unable to gain a higher budget, some individual students must choose to not participate, simply because they cannot afford it. This is extremely unfair and limits each student’s access to participating in club sports. According to the UO Club Sports website, these tournaments are member-funded for the most part and can only function through fundraising and member payments.
According to the UO Club sports website, there are forty-two athletic teams on campus that are open for students to participate in. Many of these teams hold try-outs-and some even make players pay, just to try out for the team. This fee to try out for the team is already limiting the accessibility for all students at the University of Oregon.
Some people view club sports as simply an extracurricular activity for students at the University of Oregon and therefore it does not need to be funded. It is also viewed that if a student wants to be able to participate in sports at the college level, they must work to play on the official college team. These ideas are valid, but it is important to recognize that playing at the collegiate level is very difficult and some students may choose to focus their college career on academics, but would still like to have access to playing the sport they love.